Are you an African-American, a European-American, an Asian-American -- or just a plain old American?
The recent rebroadcast of a 60 Minutes segment on Ward Connerly sent cyberspace shamuses speeding to the Internet to find out more about this courageous and articulate black businessman. Connerly, you may recall, is the author of Proposition 209, the successful state ballot initiative that outlawed affirmative action programs in California. Some of the cyber sleuths looking for clues to Connerly's character wound up at http://www.americasfuture.net, the America's Future website, which contains hundreds of our Behind The Headlines commentaries, including one devoted to Connerly.
That particular Behind The Headlines commentary carried Connerly's caution that "the pursuit of happiness cannot occur for every American when we become a society of never-ending power struggles among organized racial, gender, and ethnic groups." It also conveyed his conviction that eliminating preferences "is the only way that we can have an America in which its people are one."
A black woman from Dallas e-mailed us her response to the 60 Minutes profile and the Connerly commentary on our website. "After living in Africa for two years," she confided, "I came back to America with the same sentiments as Mr. Connerly. If black Americans would go and live in Africa," she declared, "they would refuse to be called African-American and just be proud to say that they are American plain and simple."
A white student from the University of North Carolina expressed in his e-mail the encouragement he derived from "Mr. Connerly's policy for American progress. Legislation such as Proposition 209, which provides Americans with equal employment opportunities, is a breath of fresh air for so many hardworking Americans," he exulted. "I have many black friends who agree with me that Affirmative Action is an insult to black Americans (and other ethnic groups) across this great nation. It suggests that blacks and other minority groups do not possess the same potential as whites."
This young man was "intrigued to hear Mr. Connerly refer to himself as [simply] an American, and one who raises his children to share that mentality. I do not think of myself as Euro-American," the young man observed, "nor particularly as white. That should not be the main reference point of who we are; our American heritage [should be the focus] of our pride and self-identity."
Replying to both correspondents, I professed my own admiration for Ward Connerly (not to mention Clarence Thomas, Thomas Sowell, Alan Keyes, et al.) and acknowledged that I too am sick of all this racial obsession. I discovered long ago that I have almost nothing in common with modern-day French people, despite my ancestry; and black friends of mine have confirmed that they too have little in common with modern Africans. I've also discovered, as a result of moving around the country in pursuit of job opportunities, that I have more in common with my black neighbors back in New Orleans than I do with my skinmates in other parts of the country. So, I'm with Connerly. Let's delete the hyphens and move on.
